summer flowers

Busy squeezing the last few bits of summer out of the year at the moment and now that there has been some real sun (did you notice it yesterday?) the flowers have really got going - nothing fancy this year as there hasn't been much chance to potter and plant but a couple of sunflowers made it and all the self-seeders are going for it now...

Finally a few bunches of sweet peas have been picked and the Borage has seeded everywhere (really everywhere - it is officially a weed) and is now covered with bees.

lino printing workshop

I'm teaching a couple of workshops in Lino Printing this Autumn and the first one is coming up soon - summer holidays are over everyone, start signing up for evening classes, art workshops and Christmas craft fairs right away...

This workshop is for beginners, so if you've ever fancied giving lino printing a go book a place and we'll have some fun (and tea and biscuits too, of course).

holidays

I spend some of each week communing with nature, at the allotment or out and about locally in parks and woods or chatting with our quail girls in the back garden, so for a bit of contrast I spent some of this years summer holiday in the middle of an international shipping lane.

Sunny everyday of the holiday and some really huge tankers.  Bliss.

Back to real life again now though, with lots of yummy veg coming in from the allotment at last and a big pile of lino waiting to be carved.

nature prints

I've been really enjoying the outside world again recently and so all the new lino blocks I've carved lately are heavily influenced by this...no change there you may say and that would probably be true, but I think this year all my prints are showing neatly ordered gardens and flowers, delightfully organised potting sheds and immaculate rows of veggies to balance with the wild, weedy abundance of our allotment..

living vicariously through other gardens...

Last year I posted lots of photos of my allotment on the blog (or at least bowls of things picked from it...) but this year only people interested in slug farming and mildew would find them noteworthy.

There are lots of things trying to grow and with a blast of sunshine they WILL all make it before the end of the summer, but for now I've only been taking photos of other peoples gardens, people with staff, hothouses, special micro-climates, bog-gardens and special ways of dealing with slugs.

printing with children!

I am always leaving little snippets of lino around, off cuts and little corners that I don't need as part of a block and these days there are willing helpers who are ever eager to turn the snippets into art themselves.  Sitting quietly at the table, with a lot of concentration, I find it really suprising how much time and patience they will put into lino carving when it isn't an 'instant' picture, you can't really tell how it will look until later and we can't always print until another day

Far too young to use tools surely, they merrily gouge away with only an occasional yelp of pain and end up with editions of prints of their own, ready to pass on to friends and family.  There is often a lot of black ink to remove from clothes/door handles/sinks/hands but the rolling and inking is definitely to be done by the children and I am quickly put in my place if I try to 'help'!

I can imagine that we will be doing a lot more of this this summer if the weather continues keeping us all indoors.

printing multiples

There is something very satisfying about making the same thing over and over again.

Lots of little butterfly labels have been fluttering around my work table (and they are little, as they are only 4cm long...) and although I'm sure I've got enough now and haven't thought up a use for this many  little labels I can tell I'm going to keep printing until both packets of blank labels are empty.